


The First To Go

by talexUSWNTlove



Category: Original Work
Genre: 1940s, F/F, Historical, Historical lesbians, Lesbian Character, World War II
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-06 23:47:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19073152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talexUSWNTlove/pseuds/talexUSWNTlove
Summary: The year is 1941. World War Two had just been declared. Valerie in a 16 year old girl, who just might have a crush on the girl who sits next to her in her fourth period history class. The story follows her self discovery and the conflicts she faces during world war two America.





	1. Chapter One

Valerie was just sixteen years old when President Roosevelt declared war on Japan and Nazi Germany. It was also the day that she realized that her life was never going to be normal. She was sitting by the fireplace in the living room nearest the kitchen cracking jokes with her older brother Raymond and her younger brother Simon when the announcement came on the radio. “Mom!” Simon yelled, “We are going to war with those Nazi guys!” A woman with hair tied back in a bun, a button down dress, and high heels came running into the room. The four of them listened intently to the radio as the President of the free world told America about Pearl Harbor. 

“I have to call your father.” Elizabeth Dubois got up from her chair and walked calmly to her own bedroom. 

“Oh geez!” Simon exclaimed gleefully, “We are really gonna be in a war!” He turned to Raymond, “Are you gonna fight? I sure wish I could.” Raymond sat up straight. 

“I am gonna do what is best for my country. And if that means fighting then that will be it.” Raymond had just turned twenty and was halfway through his third year of college at Princeton in New Jersey, a twelve hour car ride from where they lived. Valerie turned to her brother, 

“As long as you don’t die, I don’t care what you do.” She punched Raymond in the arm playfully, “After all, there might be some nice French girls over there,” Raymond grinned at the thought.

“Dad would sure like that.” Simon noted sighing. “I sure wish I could meet some french girls.” 

“Simon!” Valerie and Raymond exclaimed. 

“What!?” He shouted back. “I’m practically a man.”

“You’re thirteen.” Valerie rolled her eyes. “But if you think that makes you a man, by all means go hunt for our next dinner, I’m sure dad would love that.” Raymond Dubois Sr. was an environmentalist often away on work in places like New York and California where there were lots of large political men who liked their nice, quiet country homes. His job was to squeeze as much money out of them as possible in order to maintain forests and state parks. He would often come home and lecture them about the importance of protecting animals. 

“Alright, alright.” Simon laughed. “By the way, I’m starving.” 

“Well mom’s still on the phone, but I say we go see what she made.” Raymond stood up and walked through the hallway to the kitchen. Valerie and Simon followed after him. 

“Potatoes and beef… again.” Valerie wrinkled her nose. “But at least it’s food.” As she said this, Ms. Dubois walked in. 

“Your father is leaving tomorrow morning to come home, he said this war businesses has everyone a little on edge, apparently the political world has known for a few hours already.” She smiled at her children looking up at her with inquisitive eyes, “But for now, we are all home, and we have dinner, let’s eat!”


	2. Chapter Two

Hours after dinner when everyone else was asleep, Valerie was in her room finishing her homework for the next day. She had a paper due for her history class. The topic was, who in history would you invite to your home for tea? She was stuck between Abigail Adams and Harriet Tubman, both trailblazing women who she would do anything to meet. As she thought about which to write about her mind wandered to the girl who sat next to her in fourth period history. Her name was Nancy and she had beautiful thick blond hair, a stark contrast to her own thin brown hair. She had blue eyes and always wore dresses that matched. Valerie slowly let her mind wander to what she would be doing with Nancy instead of this dull homework… Valerie quickly shook her head. What a silly thought! Nancy was a girl. She closed her eyes and let out a deep breath. Abigail Adams. That’s who she would write about. 

The next day in school, Valerie was exhausted. She had spent all night thinking about the war and what it would mean for Raymond. There were sprinkles of Nancy in there, but Valerie tried her best not to think of them. When it finally came the time to go to fourth period history, all Valerie could think about was what her teacher was going to say about President Roosevelt’s declaration of war. Her history teacher was a young woman, maybe twenty five or twenty six. She was a graduate of Smith college, one of the most prestigious women’s college in the country, and she was very politically involved. Valerie walked into class and took out her books just as the bell sounded for the start of the period. “Hey,” Valerie turned to her right and saw Nancy smiling at her, her heart skipped a beat. “Who did you write about last night?” Nancy took out her own books.

“Uhhh…” Valerie suddenly forgot every word in the English language, despite just having come from that class. She looked down at her paper. “Abigail Adams.” She managed to choke out. 

“No way!” Nancy smiled and lifted her paper. “Me too!” 

“Nancy! Valerie! Pay attention!” Ms. Williams snapped at them. 

“Sorry.” Valerie whispered, blushing. 

Through the whole class all Valerie could think about was how Nancy had written about the same person as her. What were the odds? Sure they were both interested in the revolutionary war, and the role women played in it. And sure they both had just read about the Seneca Falls convention. Well maybe it wasn’t such a big deal after all. Valerie sighed and did her work in silence, stealing glances at Nancy when she could.

At the end of the day Valerie met Simon at the swing set outside of school and they started the walk home. This was one of Valerie’s favorite parts of the day. Her and Simon could laugh and talk as loud as they wanted, there was nobody around to tell them to be quiet. “Today,” Simon started with a goofy grin on his face. “Today me and Jeff pulled a prank on Mrs. Willis.” Mrs. Willis was a very old and very mean teacher in the middle school. She taught arithmetic and always had this cold way about her. 

“Oh boy,” Valerie sighed, preparing herself for the worst. “What did you do?” 

“Ohhh we got her good.” Simon’s siler growing wider. “We put one of those farting cushions under her pillow on her desk chair.” Simon snickered, Valerie rolled her eyes. 

“Eighth graders.” She sighed. 

Suddenly, a car came speeding straight at them, horn blaring. “HEY!” Valerie yelled pulling her brother to the side. “Watch it!” The bright blue car pulled to a stop about fifty feet in front of the children. 

“I thought I saw some hooligans messing around on this road.” A familiar voice called from the front seat. 

“DAD!” Simon screamed and ran up to the tall man opening the car door. Valerie breathed a sigh of relief and ran after Simon. 

“Hey kiddo,” Mr. Dubois ruffled Simons hair and pulled him into a deep hug. “And my Val!” Valerie was pulled into a rib-crushing hug.

“Hey dad.” She said, her voice muffled by his arms. 

Minutes later, the three of them were riding down the old dirt road, music blaring, and wind blowing in their hair, back home to where Raymond and Mrs. Dubois were waiting. Simon was the first one out of the car. “MOM! MOM! Guess whose home” He yelled, running into the house, nearly knocking over the pot of flowers by the front door with his bag. 

“Now that Simon is gone,” Mr. Dubois turned to his daughter. “How’s my girl?” 

“Pretty good, now that you’re back” Valerie got out of the car. “We missed you so much, especially last night with all this war talk. It’s nice to have our Dad home.” Mr. Dubois squeezed Valerie’s shoulder. 

“I’m glad to be home.”


	3. Chapter Three

“I’m going to join the air force.” Raymond looked up from his book and made the announcement.

“Alright!!!!” Simon jumped up and high fived him. Raymond let out a weak smile. Valerie keep a straight face. She looked to her mother and father and saw that they were the same. 

“Raymond,” Mr. Dubois started. “I don’t think that this is a good idea. You are over half way through your studies. Think about that.” 

“I know Dad, but my studies can wait. This war is now. The Nazis are all taking a break from their studies,” Mrs. Dubois gasped. “Why shouldn’t I?” Raymond stared at his father. 

“Why don’t the three of you go to bed. Your Mother and I will discuss this tonight, Raymond.” 

Valerie, Simon, and Raymond went quietly upstairs. Before they went off to their separate rooms all of the same floor, Valerie stopped. She grabbed Raymond’s hand. “Like I said before,” She started. “As long as you come back alive, it’s okay with me if you join.” Raymond smiled softly at her. 

“Thanks Val.” He brought her into a hug. Simon was looking on from the door of his room. “C’mere Si.” The three of them stayed that way for a while. Taking in each others scent and the softness of their love. “Alright, you two have school tomorrow, off to bed.” The two younger children walked slowly off to their rooms as Raymond closed his door. 

Valerie was sitting at the desk in her room doing homework, arithmetic to be exact. It was almost her favorite subject, just a little behind history. Not because she liked it less, but because she was always better at history. If anything, she enjoyed arithmetic more because of the challenge. But grades don’t care about how much you like a class, only how well you do in it. And, after all, Nancy wasn’t in her arithmetic class. She stopped writing for a moment and listened to the sounds of her house, she could hear the radio coming from Simon’s room in the middle of the hall next to hers, she heard Raymond putting down weights has he worked out in his room on the other end of the hall, and she could hear her mother crying from her parent’s room above her. She suddenly really didn’t want Raymond to leave. He was her big brother, her protector. And what would Simon have to look forward to now? He loved it so much when Raymond was home, he almost never shouted. Valerie took out a pencil and paper and wrote maybe a hundred times, “Please don’t let Raymond die. Please don’t let Ramond die.” She stopped when her eyes were too droopy to stay open. She pulled on her night clothes, an old shirt and a pair of old running shorts, and washed up in the bathroom between her room and Simon’s. 

As she was just about to climb into bed, she saw her history paper on Abigail Adams with a big check and a smiley face on it. Without thinking she whispered, “Nancy Dubois.” Valerie, realizing what she had said, whipped her head around to make sure nobody was in her room or could hear. Despite the fact that she was alone, she blushed harder than she ever had in her life. “Nancy Dubois.” She whispered again, this time smiling. “My wife, Nancy Dubois.” She decided that was a little too far and shook her head. “Okay, okay. We’re done.” Valerie said to herself, letting the thoughts of Nancy leave her mind, but as always, before she fell asleep, all she could think about was how Nancy’s lips would feel on her own. 

The next week went by in a blurr. Valerie’s parents had decided that of Raymond wanted to enlist in the air force there was nothing they could do to stop him, after all, he was already twenty years old. Mr. Dubois stayed at home the entire week, an event so rare that even Simon began to question it.

Finally, it was the last day of school before school was out for Christmas break. The day went by slower than any day in the world. Valerie was so looking forward to the break because her grandparents would come from Montreal, in Canada, to spend the holiday with them. They were supposed to be arriving tomorrow, and they always brought the best presents, and, of course, her grandmother was the most amazing cook. In first period english, they wrote short stories on Christmas and what it meant to them and their families. In second period physics, they learned about the trajectory of Santa’s sleigh and estimated how long it would take him to get to every child in the world (about 7,000 years in one night, so impossible). In arithmetic, they did normal work, arithmetic teachers were never any fun. Finally it was fourth period history. Today, Nancy was wearing a red button down blouse and green pants that flowed out at the bottom. “Don’t I look just like a Christmas tree?” She said to Ms.Williams as she walked in the room, twirling. 

“Just.” Ms.Williams said smiling. “Alright, everyone get seated, please.” The class rustled and adjusted, sighing as they took out their books. “Hold on,” Valerie looked up. “I never said to take out books, did I?” The class smiled up at their teacher. She reached into her bad and pulled out a radio and a box of cookies. The class cheered and clapped. “Enjoy the last class before break!” Everyone rushed up to get a cookie. 

“Hey, Valerie!” Valerie turned to where the voice was coming from, it was Nancy. “Want to dance?” Nancy extended her hand in a kindly manner.

“Sure!” Valerie jumped up from her seat and took Nancy’s hand, she could have sworn she felt electricity between them. 

“Ohhh I do love this song!” Chattanooga Choo Choo had just come on. “Take my hands!” Nancy and Valerie floated to the middle of the classroom, performing a swing dance for their classmates. Ms. Williams laughed and smiled as she watched the two girls, perfect in motion, dance the song away. After the music had changed, Valerie took Nancy’s hand. 

“Want to grab a cookie?” Nancy nodded, still catching her breath. The two girls walked over to the box on Ms. Williams desk. “Thanks a ton Ms. Williams,” Valerie said to her young teacher. “In all my other classes, we did work. This is the best.” Ms Williams smiled at her. 

“Well I’m sure glad that you girls are enjoying it. Looks like you two are one.” Nancy was already walking back to her seat when Ms. Williams said this. Valerie blushed and started to walk away, she turned back for a moment, just in time to see Ms. Williams wink at her. She blushed harder. 

“Well you are quite the dancer, Ms. Valerie Dubois.” Nancy said as Valerie sat down next to her. 

“Why thank you Madam Miller.” Nancy faked a gasp. 

“Well you are just so charming indeed! My, how haven’t you a husband yet?” 

“Must be because of all the pretty ladies like yourself.” Valerie, realizing what she said, froze. Terror filling her mind. 

“Well you’re not so bad yourself.” Nancy smiled at her. Valerie let out a sigh of relief. “Did I make you nervous?” Nancy said, hearing Valerie’s sigh. 

“No, no!” Valerie said, now very nervous. “I just am out of breath from dancing is all.” She let out a breathy laugh. Nancy nodded, adding to the laughter. 

“Are you going to be around this break?” She asked. 

“Yeah!” Valerie replied excitedly. “My grandparents are coming tomorrow, and when they’re here we don’t really leave the house. Will you be here?” Valerie looked hopefully into Nancy’s blue eyes. 

“Sure am. My little brother is sick right now, and we usually go down to florida for Christmas, but on account of his sickness we are stuck here.” She rolled her eyes. “But I guess that means I can see you! That makes the whole situation so much better.” Nancy looked down at the floor. Valerie couldn’t believe what she had just heard. Nancy wanted to spend time with her. This was the best day ever. 

“Let me give you my house’s phone number.” She took out a piece of paper and ripped it in half. She wrote her number on one half and gave the other to Nancy to write hers down. Just as they exchanged the slips, the bell rang. 

“Guess I’ll see you soon.” Nancy said, pulling Valerie into a hug. 

“Yeah, I’ll call you tomorrow!” Valerie said taking in the feel of Nancy’s hair and soft skin. The two girls walked seperate ways to their next classes, Valerie only hoping that Nancy was thinking of their hug as much as she was.


End file.
